DBS part 5

Yesterday, we turned on it on.  Powered it up.  Made it so.  Got 'er done.

I felt nothing.  At first.  After a minute or so, I felt just a touch looser, as if I had taken a handful of pills and then waited a half hour for them to start to kick in.  It was a subtle feeling, and at first I wasn't even sure it was real.  But then I moved a little--sat down, stood up, walked around.  No doubt about it, I was more relaxed and moving more smoothly.  This was after skipping all meds for the day, so while this was one of my better unmedicated days, I was in fairly rough shape.

My first thought was that I should not take my scheduled meds as planned.  Why?  To see how close to "there" the new DBS signals would be able to get me.  However, the neurologist thought that would be too many variables changing all at once, so I resumed taking them.  Not quite as scheduled, but I took them.

The tracking and controlling software seems pretty sophisticated, from the brief look I had.  The software made a recommendation, and the neurologist used that recommendation as a baseline.  From there it's all about how I respond.  If I need more, the power can be tweaked upward.  If it is too much (evidenced by dyskinesia), we can dial it back a little.

I was given a small amount of authority to modify the output on my own behalf.  The initial setting was 6, and I can adjust it up or down by 1, in increments of 0.1, which I have done.  Last night I used half of the increase margin, 0.1 at a time a total of 5 times, ending up at 6.5.  This morning I applied the remaining 0.5 all at once, so it is currently at 7.  I did not feel anything drastic or sudden, but I did notice two things:  1) my usual difficulties walking when I first get out of bed were gone (no festinating and little or no shuffling), and 2) my usual difficulties using a touch screen were also gone.  As an informal benchmark, I play Hunting Sniper on a Samsung tablet, and I typically cannot do it at all until my meds kick in.  Today I was able to play right off the bat.

I see the neurologist again today for fine tuning.  Stay tuned!



*Pictured:  the 2024 Aston Martin DBS

Wrong DBS, of course . . . but it MOVES!  As I hope to do, soon.

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